Overrun with fleas! How to get rid of?

[yardoasis]

I've known that my yard has a flea problem, and I treated / sprayed the yard with permethrin with one of those spray bottle thingies where you attach a water hose to it. I did that last week.

It helped, except now the fleas are having a party in the pool. I guess they're trying to avoid the treated areas, so the pool was their only option. Now, how do I get rid of fleas in the pool? There are thousands, even MILLIONS of them in there! I'm not kidding.

I'm assuming it's a bad idea to spray permethrin in the pool?

 

[bridgman]

My first thought would be to raise the FC level in the pool, but I don't know how much overlap there is between "level required to kill bugs" and "level that is safe for swimming". I have noticed that (knock on wood) insects don't seem to live long in my tub these days now that I'm treating exclusively with chlorine.

 

[glitter&guns]

When I was in ag class I learned that fleas float because they trap air bubbles in the little hairs on their bodies. You can't drown a flea. UNLESS you break the surface tension of the water. I was taught that shampoo in water would break the surface tension and cause fleas to drown. I don't know what gets put in pools that has an effect on surface tension, but figuring that out should make them drown.

 

[AimeeH]

My pool surface was covered with the flying ants last evening. I just turned the pump on to run overnight so they would all be in the skimmers in the morning.

Won't the pump move the fleas to their demise in a skimmer?

 

[yardoasis]

I don't think chlorine kills the fleas, they've been in the pool for some time, just not in the numbers I saw this morning.

Running pump now, looks a lot better now. Hope the filter picks them up.

If I see them again in large numbers when the pump is not running, I'll post back here.

 

[Richard320]

You might want to do this when you're skimming fleas: http://www.troublefreepool.com/threads/58581-Skimmer-Sock-Nylon-Illustrated